Of late, privacy has been insisted and tight guidelines and laws been put into place. But why should you be concerned with your Online Privacy? Why now that privacy policies must and have to be in place?

What is a privacy policy?

A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer or client's privacy.

First, Privacy Policies are Legally Required.

If you’re collecting any kind of personal information from your users through your site or mobile app, you need a Privacy Policy. A Privacy Policy is an agreement that covers the ways a business collects, handles and uses (or intends on using) their users’ personal information.

Privacy Policies are required by law because in collecting personal information from your visitors, users, customers, and clients, you assume responsibility for protecting their privacy.

But what kind of information is protected by law and what are your legal obligations?

Personally identifiable information is data that can identify a person, such as a government ID number, email address, phone number or billing details.

For this reason, a number of countries around the world have privacy laws that require you to have a Privacy Policy agreement if you collect personal information from their citizens.

Additionally, some third-party services – like Google Analytics – also require you to have a Privacy Policy because they collect personal information through your website when you use their services.

At minimum, your Privacy Policy agreement should include clauses that detail what personal or sensitive information you collect, how you collect it, how you intend to use that information, and whether you will disclose some or all of that information to any third parties.

Now that you have a solid overview of what a Privacy Policy is, the types of information it deals with, and why it’s required by law, let’s take a look at some different privacy laws from around the world that require you to have a Privacy Policy agreement.

Every country has it's own law thus the definition of what is private may be similar in some aspects but also may have disparities.